Archive for January 6th, 2012

Never mind the fact that I hate having to search for the “show file extensions” option in every new install of Windows, or the fact that the location of this particular dialog seems to change with each new iteration of the venerable Microsoft OS. There’s something else maddening about this dialog:

It’s the subtle inconsistency.

Perhaps it’s just me, but it seems contradictory that you have a host of checkboxes but the purpose of some is to show some things when checked and, for others, seemingly at random, will hide other things when checked. If it were related to their default states, one could very possibly make an incredibly weak case for their status quo, but as it is? Baffling.

It’s a small thing, but if Jobs’ legacy has taught us anything, it’s that attention to detail makes all the difference. Make “checked boxes” mean “show things” and unchecked boxes are implicitly “hide things”; or vice versa, I don’t care. But why couldn’t they just be consistent?